Focus Character: Sally Bowles, Who is she?

For my first design within a historical context, I have chosen to interpret the character of Sally Bowles. Initially, I was eager to avoid producing a design for this character because she has been so well-interpreted in the past, however, upon further consideration, I realised that beyond university I may be expected to produce fresh designs for characters who have previously been represented in an iconic form so I decided to face this challenge now and see how my research can inform and inspire an original take on the Kit Kat Club singer. 
Looking at the assignment brief, I have found that our designs are to be informed by the original text, not any subsequent adaptation of it. I feel that in my quest to be original, this factor is advantageous. 

As previously outlined, Bowles is inspired by a woman named Jean Ross whom Isherwood knew during his time in Berlin. From the text we gather that Sally is 19 years old, a well-groomed young lady who relies on the financial support of her parents back home in England to sustain her life in Berlin. This information would suggest that Sally's background is reasonably well-to-do, though you wouldn't necessarily think so given much of Sally's flighty behaviour. Isherwood introduces Bowles at Fritz Wendel's flat in early October:

"She was dressed in black silk, with a small cape over her shoulders and a little cap like a page-boy's stuck jauntily on the side of her head"

Isherwood, C. (1939). Sally Bowles. In: Goodbye to Berlin. 10th ed. London: Hogarth Press. p4.

Wearing silk would have been an expensive choice which further supports the idea that her parents were reasonably well off. Isherwood continues in his description of her:

"As she dialled the number, I noticed that her finger-nails were painted emerald green, a colour unfortunately chosen, for it called attention to her hands which were stained by cigarette-smoking and as dirty as a little girl's. She was dark enough to be Fritz's sister. Her face was long and thin, powdered dead white. She had very large brown eyes which should have been darker, to match her hair and the pencil she used for her eyebrows.

'Hilloo,' she cooed, pursing her brilliant cherry lips as though she were going to kiss the mouthpiece..."

Isherwood, C. (1939). Sally Bowles. In: Goodbye to Berlin. 10th ed. London: Hogarth Press. p5-6.

This description gives us a definite idea of what Bowles looked like to Isherwood's mind and is a good starting point when considering a makeup design for her, however, in order to stay original, we must look further into the book for information on Sally's appearance and behaviour as the story progress. A good example of an alternative image for Sally, is the Jane Horrocks' take on her in the Broadway revisit of the stage musical Cabaret. In this performance, the character has much more sinister facets, appearing as if child-sized on a large chair, licking a lollipop; an appearance it is said was chosen to represent the character as appealing to certain perversions of the 1930s Berlin audience. Though this is not an idea I can consider given the fact that I have to remain true to the text, it is interested to see that the character can be interpreted many ways.